Business Tips

One of the largest and most underestimated social networks with around 200 million users (and around a $2 billion valuation) is Quora. Quora is kind of a mix between Reddit , LinkedIn, and the late Google Answers. Millions of questions are asked every day on every topic you can imagine (even very obscure ones you won't find on Medium and you'll only find on Reddit) and other members who are knowledgeable in those areas answer them. It's an excellent way to build your brand, drive traffic to your website or videos, and become an authority in your industry. You start your profile by ideally connecting your account to Facebook and Twitter, which helps you to find and connect with your existing friends and followers. You then create and optimize your profile including links to your other social media accounts, blogs, websites, products, or anything else you're looking to promote. You can start a free blog there as well if you want. I wouldn't recommend it over Medium, ...

Pinterest has been a popular social media platform for many years now and it has been successfully adopted by hundreds of thousands of businesses and entrepreneurs during this time. But not all marketers have gotten on board or fully utilized this versatile medium.  In fact, Pinterest seems to be one of the platforms that many companies choose to skip in favor of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn , YouTube, and even our mediocre friend Google Plus! I'm not saying you should ditch any of these tried and true platforms (except perhaps the lowly Google+ ... even though I personally use it almost daily to cover my bases), but you should give Pinterest a fair shot and maximize its potential. When most people think of Pinterest they usually think of DIY projects, design ideas, weddings, fashion, and fitness... but that's kind of like thinking  YouTube is just for cat videos, or that Instagram is just for Selfies (wait it's not?). Don't let this close-minded perspective...

Reddit is one of the largest social networks / forums that is largely ignored (myself included until recently I'll admit) by the majority of corporations and small business owners alike. It has over 500 Million active users and it is the #4 website in the US (#9 in the world) when it comes to overall traffic. It's an active and growing community that allows access to the coveted Generation Z and Millennial demographics. And now it's more versatile than ever with brand new complete user profiles. With a user base that enormous, it would be tragic not to take advantage of such an opportunity to promote your content and interact with prospects. In an increasingly competitive global marketplace, it would be wise to market your media and build your brand on Reddit. Here are some reasons why: Share Visual Content Like the wildly popular Snapchat and Instagram platforms, Reddit is all about images and video. If your business has a strong visual component, and I would argue most...

No I didn't hit my head and imagine I was back in 2011. We all know Google+ never materialized into a serious competitor for social media supremacy with its past and current rivals of Facebook , Twitter, or LinkedIn. I'll also admit Google Plus should never be the cornerstone or even a focal point of any sort for any social media marketer. In fact, over the last 6 years I've mostly used G+ as an undiscriminating dumping ground for all of my content. And honestly I could care less about Circles and Google Hangouts.  So why am I writing about using Google Plus marketing to help grow your business? Because it works!! It can help support your digital efforts and it provides a strong ROI (no cost and minimal time). It really comes down to the ease of connecting, minimal time investment, and SEO benefits that G+ can provide. It also fits with my overall theme of using every free weapon at your disposal in an increasingly crowded and competitive social media marketing landscape. ...

Now that you've decided on your business focus,  started creating exceptional content , and started leveraging your social media networks to build an audience... you're ready to begin monetizing your new digital media. This is a subject of some debate for many media producers. It really depends on your perspective when to start monetizing your sites. Some people don't want to monetize their media in the beginning of building a brand for fear of losing readers / viewers / subscribers with of customer-repelling ads in return for a small amount of income ( think Mark Zuckerberg in Facebook's infancy). I certainly respect that outlook and agree that it should be seriously considered depending on your target audience.  My opinion, however, is that implementing a monetization system and plan early on in your business development will: a)  Give you valuable data you can analyze including a baseline for revenue and what income channels are most successful b)  Avoid shockin...

Creating and modifying eye-catching images is critical for small business owners and corporations alike. But not everyone can afford Adobe Creative Suite programs such as Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator for image creation and editing. And not everyone has the technical expertise to successfully utilize these programs for their business graphic design. Luckily for frugal entrepreneurs and smaller businesses, there are plenty of useful low-cost or free programs you can use to get the job done. While there are a lot of great options out there, in  this post I'll focus on five free image editing resources I've used often and recommended to several others. These programs won't make you a professional graphic designer but they'll usually help you to  get the job done for no cost. If it's free it's for me! 1)  Canva  With brand evangelist Guy Kawasaki on board with Canva you know it's a great website! You can create custom dimensions up to 5000 x 5000 pixels but...

You're a bootstrapped entrepreneur and looking for ways to improve and organize your business. Or perhaps you're simply looking to improve on the infrastructure that's already put in place. Luckily, there are committed developers who provide open source software to help with such tasks - and for free at that. This list includes tools for things like project management for business, cloud storage for business, even a VPN (Virtual Private Network) to stay more secure. Regardless of your needs, there is a cloud-based software designed to produce the benefit that many businesses small to large seek out. Here are 4 cloud tools for business that can help you create, stay organized, manage projects, and manage your security.  The following 4 tools will cover cloud-based software that includes cloud storage for business, project management for business, WordPress for business, and how a business VPN can benefit a company .  1. WordPress  WordPress is perhaps one of the most popul...